Tuesday, January 15, 2013

The kind of things I worry about.

As I've mentioned before, I'm biracial. I've experienced all the angst and awkwardness associated with being a mixed kid. When I married a Cuban-American man, I expected that my kids would look even more ethnically ambiguous than me. I thought about all the ways that I would prepare them for the racism that they would experience: the people who would say horrible things about whites, blacks, hispanics, etc. in front of them not realizing. I've even had people insult my own mother to my face not realizing that I was connected to her. When Obama was running for president, I became more concerned because despite the fact that he was elected, I began to see an amplification of racist stereotypes and rhetoric. For the first time in my life, I began to feel that the country was becoming more racist instead of less so. Lilah could be mistaken for any number of ethnicities. After she was born, I worried for her because the trend of increased racism seemed to continue. Now, I have Michaela, and you wouldn't know that her parents weren't "WASPs" if we weren't with her. So last night I had a dream about a worry that I hadn't considered before.
She was in college, and dating a boy she thought she would marry, but when she brought him home to us he was horrified that he had been dating a minority and didn't know it (basically a plot line from Queen, except with my blue-eyed baby playing the lead instead of Halle Barry). I remember watching that movie when I was a little girl, and thinking that it was horrible, but that the world wasn't that way anymore. Now I know that I was wrong. Not only did I experience racism periodically (though, ironically, most often from other minorities), but I also find myself concerned about it for my children.
Will we ever, EVER get beyond this issue?